I crawled with the NYC Zombie Crawl the Sunday before Halloween and wanted to share my costume. The theme was Zombie Beauty Pageant, so I decided to make my first zombie dress and try to look like a classy zombie.

I made the dress from a semi-thick white stretch jersey. I did not use a pattern but just kind of draped it since it was so stretchy. I sewed a tube of double thickness for the chest, then gathered it a little at the bust and added a long rectangle as a halter strap. I made a circle skirt for the bottom that I cut shorter in the front and longer in the back.

I zombified my dress by lighting it on fire about 8 times on my fire escape (ironic?), shredding the bottom a bit, slashing it a few places, and then attacking it with fake blood I made (white corny syrup, red food dye, chocolate sauce). I let it dry for a few days.

I did my zombie make up with a layer of gray body paint, black/purple/red around the eyes, black lines on the nose, black colored eyebrows, a big chunk of gore on my lower chin, and some random other spots of nasty skin and blood.